Chapter 41: Power Gap
The crowds cheered, anticipating for the next match. It was only the first round of matches but the crowd could not wait to see the up coming match. The loud roars of the crowd shook the whole Colosseum.
Compared to the first tournament, this second tournament had more spectators. This was because only a little over 300 students signed up to participate in this tournament and the students who did not, went to watch the event.
Rowen walked out of the waiting room, her face was calm but inside she was slightly nervous. She looked at her opponent and sighed.
Although everyone knew how biased the Rizon faction was, she did not believe that they would stoop so low.
She recalled the bulletin board of the announced rankings and gritted her teeth. Anyone that had half a brain would know what was going on. The majority of the eighth year students were also angered by the match ups. It was clear that the match ups were not ordered randomly, if so, how could there be such a coincidence?
Despite the unfair match ups, Rowen could only fight head on.
....
Within the special room, the old man from the Imperial city sat in a chair and watched over the tournament. The headmaster Elon was by his side, smiling and giving superficial flattery to the old man.
The old man ignored Elon, he was ordered by the Imperial family to confirm Emily's existence and delivery the void jewelry as a gift. Since he had already finished his duties to the Imperial family, he wanted to return to the Imperial city as soon as possible, but the head of the Rizon family ordered him to watch the tournament until the end.
'Hmm.. this must be the kid that the head was curious about. Indeed, this kid has some talent, it would be great if we can invite this kid to our side', the old man thought to himself
He grabbed a stack of papers and looked through the pages. It was a copy of the match ups for the second tournament.
As he looked through it his eyebrows raised
'This trash... you think I wouldn't notice such a cheap trick?', he thought as his gaze swiftly fell on the academy's headmaster beside him. A hint of disdain could be seen in his eyes.
....
A tall well built young figure stood across of Rowen.
This person was no stranger to Rowen. They both joined the Martial faction at the same year.
"Ha ha, it looks like our meeting today is fate"
"Fate? Do you really think so?", Rowen asked
The tall figure gave a friendly smile, he knew what Rowen meant
"At least now you can't run away like last time"
-SIGH-
Rowen couldn't help but let out a big sigh again. Her opponent, Tordin, was the same opponent she surrendered to during the previous tournament.
When the tournament among the same year occurred, Tordin would always place first every year. Rowen did not have much hope winning the this match. A year ago, he even placed top 4; by then he could already compete with seniors 1 year ahead of him and now that those seniors are gone, it was obvious that he was the strongest among all the current students.
'This fighting maniac..', Rowen cursed inside
Before his enrollment to the academy, an elder who was returning back from their yearly exploration found the young Tordin alone in the wilderness. Tordin survived within the northern wilderness alone for a year. As for his parents, they both died trying to save Tordin.
With his experience with one of the more dangerous parts of the empire, he naturally developed his prowess ahead of other students. Although it was all self taught, his instincts was honed and allowed him to luckily survive in the wilderness alone.
"Rowen, don't worry, I won't be too rough. I'll be as gentle as senior Aran was gentle with me"
Rowen didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
Her older brother, Aran, trained both Tordin and her. With Tordin's aptitude for combat, Aran had always been rough with him during training.
'What gentle is he talking about?' she asked herself
She knew the gap of strength between them. Her speed was the only thing that could match up, but even in pure speed, anticipating each others' attacks, showing feints to bait each other, Tordin was much better.
These advantages made it seem as if Tordin was much faster than her even though they practically had the same physical speed. Reading your opponent's move decreases the time that you have to react, while creating feints slows down the opponent's reaction time. Strength wise, she could not compare at all.
"8th match, Tordin vs Rowen. Fight commence!", the judge announced the start of the fight
Rowen stood motionlessly but kept her guard up.
Her only hope was for him to make a crucial mistake. If she could capitalize on his mistake, perhaps somehow she could turn the tables.
Tordin, on the other hand, smiled and started to slowly approach. Despite being a fighting maniac, he was not stupid at all. Letting your guard down was one of the biggest mistake you could make that could cost you your life. This philosophy was engraved in Tordin's soul so he did not underestimate any of his opponents. He watched his opponents carefully and could instinctively tell how strong they are.
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When he reached a certain distance from Rowen, Tordin dashed cautiously and threw a punch towards Rowen. Although he did not dash full speed, his speed was still very fast.
Rowen too her sword and slashed back as she dodged the punch. Tordin's steel bracers blocked the sword completely.
Although Tordin had a sword equipped on his back, throughout the tournaments, he was never been forced to use it. The only time he used it was the previous years before this one; all of them against senior students.
This year, he fought every match barehanded, not even Rowen could force him to unsheathe his sword. Although it looked like he was underestimating Rowen, Tordin knew his opponent's limits as well as his own strength.
Even with the handicap he gave to Rowen, there was still a huge gap in power between them.
The battle was long. Rowen was on the defensive most of the time. From time to time, she would counter attack at the slightest opening but Tordin would easily parry or dodge them.
Rowen was eventually forced towards the edge of the stage. It was clear that Tordin was only toying with her as he was smiling during the whole exchange. Rowen became irritated from Tordin's smug smile and did not notice her own position on the stage.
Tordin let out a punch and Rowen barely dodges it as she suddenly realize where she was but during this moment of realization, a swift kick caught her off guard. She blocked with her sword but the force was so strong that she was kicked out of stage.
The crowd cheered for the spectacular fight. To amateurs, this fight was exciting, but for those experts who knew how to fight, it was quite boring.
Tordin who was on stage laughed and lend a hand to Rowen who was on the ground; helping her get up.
Rowen did not hide how annoyed she was.
She basically lost 1 gold coin for nothing! But after thinking about the rest of the matches, she did not feel to bad.
"Good luck in your next matches, I hope you lose" She said with a smile
"Ha ha ha, I'm quite lucky to have strong opponents one after the other. Perhaps I'm too blessed?", Tordin replied
The match ups were so skewed that the majority of the strong contenders would be matched up against each other, while the rest of the Rizon faction would be on the other side of the brackets; against much weaker juniors. It was basically to ensure that one of the Rizon faction members would take the top positions and show their "glory" to the important visitor.
The crowd did not mind as they only wanted to see high level battles. As for the younger participants, they were ecstatic. With the brackets arranged like this, they had a larger chance to reach top 16.
Today was the day that the whole academy saw how shameless and dirty the Rizon faction really was, but in spite of the fact that the were aware of such things, they could not do anything but complain is secret.
During the next round, Gina also lost to Tordin.
The tournament went through the remaining week.
Tordin defeated every opponent who was up against him.
In the final match, it was Tordin versus Daniel. With the help of the headmaster, even without using his previous armor, Daniel easily sailed his way to the finals.
Although Tordin was thankful for monopolizing all the strong opponents, it left a very bad taste in his mouth to have such a despicable opponent in his final fight.
For the final match, Tordin was not merciful at all. He fractured a few of Daniel's bones before finishing the fight.
The majority of students watched until the very end of the tournament. Although Teo was also sitting with his friends and sister, he did not pay attention too much about the fight.
The whole tournament was like a spark that ignited his blood. When Teo witnessed Rowen and Gina fighting, he could not help admire their strength. Every time they would win their match, it felt like he won as well. Every time they were in a risky situation, his heart would tighten as if he was in their situation.
A small spark of interest had been ignited inside him.
'What would it feel like to win like he did?', Teo pondered as he looked at Tordin's figure standing alone on stage with the crowd cheering for his win.
After thinking about it, he held some anticipation for his third year to come. He even started considering on joining the Martial faction.
His sister right now is considered to be the second strongest. Next year she would be gone and by that time, he wouldn't be able to ask for advice about things kinds of things. He also wanted to spend more time with her before she left for her expedition years.
After much deliberation, he finally made a decision.
Teo tapped on Rowen's shoulder grabbing her attention.
"What is it Teo?"
"Big sister, teach me how to fight"